Safety-grip for plungers of elevators.



w. E. SMALL & H. R. HILTON.

SAFETY GRIP FOR PLUNGERS 0F ELEVATORS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 8' 1915. 1,156,324. Patented Oot.12,1915.

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W. E. SMALL & H. R. HILTON. SAFETY GRIP FOR PLUNGERS 0F ELEVATORS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 8. I915.

- Patented 00t.12,1915.

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enlarged broken view showing a portion of I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER E. SMALL AND HARRY HILTON, DE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

SAFETY-GRIP FOR PLUNGERS OF ELEVATORS;

Application filed March 8, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, W'ALTER E; SMALL and HARRY R. HILTON, both citizens of the United States of America and both residing at Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Safety-Grip for Plungers of Elevators; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to safety grip for plungers of elevators, and it may be said to consist in the provision of the novel and advantageous features and in the novel and improved construction, arrangement, and combination of parts and devices as will appear from the description and claims which follow hereinafter.

The main object of the invention is to provide novel and improved means adapted to grip the plunger of a fluid-operated elevator and act to retard or stop the elevator car when the latter travels at an unsafe speed or becomes unmanageable through breakage or defective operation of its m0- tive apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel and improved means of the nature specified, the operation of which may be governed either manually or automatically or both.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel and improved means of the nature specified which can readily be applied to existing fluid-operated elevators.

Further objects of the invention are to provide novel and improved means of the nature specified which is simple and eco nomical to manufacture, install, and maintain, and which is practical and serviceable,

. and effective in action.

Other objects and the advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a careful consideration of the following description of the preferred forms of the constructions embodying the invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a broken elevational view showing a fluid-operated elevator having the invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is an Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 12, 1915.

Serial No. 12,978.

the construction shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a broken elevational view of the means for pneumatically controlling the grip; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the grip and associated parts and devices; Fig. 5 is an enlarged broken sectional view of the grip and associated parts, taken on the line 55 of Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 66 of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a broken sectional view taken on the line 77 of Fig. 5; Fig. 8 is an enlarged elevational view of the shaft having the trip dog and wedge mounted thereon; Fig. 9 is a side elevational View of the wedge; and Fig. 10 is a view showing the form of the rollers with which the wedge contacts.

The fluid-operated elevator may be of the usual or any approved construction, that shown consisting of the car 11 slidably arranged on the vertical guides 12 and mounted on the upper end of the hollow plunger 13 which extends downwardly into the cylinderlat; passing through the head 15 provided at the top of the cylinder. cylinder head 15 may be suitably mounted the posts 16 having thereon the elastic buffers 17 to engage and support the car 11 in its lowest position. The controlling devices and motive apparatus which are omitted in the drawings may be of any suitable or approved construction.

The gripping device for the plunger is preferably arranged in a housing 18 consisting of half parts 19 and 20 fitted on the posts 16 and which are suitably secured together and adapted to surround the plunger 13. Said gripping device preferably consists of the blocks or shoes 21 removably fitted in pockets in the curved jaws 22 and disposed adjacent to the plunger 13 and adapted to be pressed against the plunger by the jaws 22 which latter at one end are connected by the pivot 23, and at the other end are moved toward each other by springs 24: which have one end bearing on one jaw and have the other end bearing against abutments or caps 25 adjustably arranged at one end of rods 26 which latter pass freely through said jaw and at the other end are pivotally connected to the other jaw. As shown in Figs. 4c, 5, and 6, the shoes 21 preferably rest on the annular ledge 27 at the bottom of housing 18, and have their On the upper end portions 21 reduced in width and I fitted freely in recesses 28 provided in the split ring 29 which latter may be secured in place on the housing by cap screws 30.

The mechanism for rendering the gripping device ineffective preferably consists of the wedge 31 mounted fast on the inner end of the shaft 32 which is mounted on the housing 18 and has fastened on its outer end the finger 33 which latter is adapted to be engaged by the hook 34 on one end of the dog which is mounted on a pivot 36 on the housing 18. The shaft may be turned to move the wedge 31 to position between the rollers 37 mounted on the separable ends of the aws 22, by means of a bar 38 removably fitted in a socket 39 on the hub 40 of the finger 33; and a spring 41 may be attached to the housing 18 and to the projection 42 on the dog 35, to aid in effecting engagement of the hook 34 and finger 33.

Automatically actuated mechanism for rendering the gripping device effective may be connected with the mechanism just described, and it preferably consists of a connecting rod 43 which has one end pivotally connected to the dog 35 and has the other end pivotally connected to an arm 44 on the trip finger 45 mounted fast on the shaft 46 arranged on a frame 47 which latter may be disposed on the bottom of the elevator shaft or suitably attached to the cylinder 14. A

rotatable device 48 is suitably operated to have its speed of rotation proportionate to the speed of movement of the plunger 13, and it has thereon a part or parts adapted to engage the trip finger 45 when the speed of movement of the plunger reaches a predetermined limit. Said rotatable device 48 preferably consists of a drum 49 provided with a removable cover 50 and mounted fast on a quill 51 arranged on a shaft 53 mounted on the frame 47, and having arranged therein weights which extend through slots 54 in the periphery of the drum and are provided with projections 55 and secured to one end of arms 56 which are mounted on pivots 57 and connected as shown by springs 58 having one end attached to one arm 56 at the end remote from the weight 53 and having the other end attached to the weight 53 on the other arm. Vhen the speed of movement of the plunger 13 reaches the limit at which travel in the car 11 is unsafe, the weights 53 move outwardly to have the projections 55 engage the trip finger 45 and thus operate the arm 44, connecting rod 43, and dog 35 to disengage the latter from the finger 33 and thereby permit the wedge 31 to be forced out of its position between the rollers 37, whereupon the springs 24 act to move the jaws 22 toward each other and cause said aws to press the shoes 21 against the plunger 13 and in consequence retard or stop the movement of the plunger 13 and car 11. The rotatable device 48 may be operated by a cable 59 which is attached to the upper and lower ends of the car 11 and is in contact with sheaves (30 and 61 suitably mounted at the upper and lower ends of one of the guides 12; the lower sheave (31 having fast thereon a sprocket wheel (32 over which and the sprocket wheel 63 fast on the quill 51 passes a sprocket chain 64.

Means the operation of which can be controlled by the operator of the elevator may be associated with the dog 35 to render the gripping device ineffective, and such means may be used with or without the automatically controlled mechanism connected with said dog. As seen in Figs. 1, 2, and 4, the dog 35 may have thereon an armature (55 adjacent to the electromagnet 66 which is suitably mounted on the housing 18 and connected by conductors 67 to a switch 68 which latter is suitablv arranged in the car 11 and is suitably connected with a source of electric current; or as seen in Fig. 3 the dog 35 may be connected to the rod 69 of piston 70 arranged in the cylinder 71 to which is connected the flexible pipe or hose 72 connected with a two-way valve 73 which is suitably arranged in the car 11 and connected with a pipe 74 leading to a source of supply of air under pressure.

From the foregoing the operation and advantages of the constructions will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, and it will be seen that they are well adapted to accomplish the objects of the invention.

The forms of construction which have been particularly illustrated and described admit of changes and modifications, wherefore the right is reserved to all such changes and modifications as do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. The combination with a fluid-operated elevator including a plunger, of a device including jaws adapted to grip the plunger and arranged adjacent to said plunger, mechanism for rendering said device ineffective, including a shaft, a wedge thereon adapted to fit between said jaws, a finger on said shaft, and a pivotally mounted dog adapted to engage said finger, and manually controlled means connected with said dog to operate the latter to render said device effective to grip the plunger.

2. The combination with a fluid-operated elevator including a plunger, of a device including jaws adapted to grip the plunger and arranged adjacent to said plunger, mechanism for rendering said device ineffective, including a shaft, a wedge thereon adapted to fit between said jaws, a finger on said shaft, and a pivotally mounted dog adapted to engage said finger, automatically-actuated mechanism connected with the dog to operate the latter to render said device effective to grip the plunger, and manually controlled means connected with said dog to operate the latter to render said device effective to grip the plunger.

3. The combination with a fluid-operated elevator including a plunger, or a device, including jaws, adapted to grip the plunger and arranged adjacent to said plunger, mechanism for rendering said device ineffective includin a shaft a wed 'e thereon,

adapted to fit between said jaws, a finger on said shaft, and a pivotally mounted dog to engage said fingers, a trip finger operatively connected to said dog, and a rotatable member having parts thereonadapted to engage said trip finger when the speed of rotation ofsaid rotatable member reaches a predetermined limit.

l. The combination with a fluid-operated elevator including a plunger and a car thereon of a device, including jaws, adapted to grip the plunger and arranged adjacent to said plunger, mechanism for rendering said device ineffective, including a shaft, a wedge thereon adapted to fit between said jaws, a finger on said shaft, and a pivotally mounted dog to engage said finger, a trip finger operatively connected to said dog, a rotatable member operatively connected to said car, and parts on said rotatable member adapted to engage said trip linger when the speed of rotation of said rotatable member reaches a predetermined limit.

In testimony whereof, we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses at Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, State of California, this 1st day of March A. D. 1915.

ALTER E. SMALL. HARRY R. HILTON. Witnesses A. H. Lmnnns, ELLA SCOTT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

